Happily Ever After
by whoopy
Summary: ONE-SHOT Hermione is pregnant and alone in 12 Grimmauld Place while her husband and friends fought in a war against Voldemort. Then she finds out her husband was the only person who did not return. Told from thirdperson view revolving mostly around Hermione.


**Happily ever after**

**Disclaimer: JK is the queen and everything belongs to her.**

**A/N: Hello everyone! This plot has been bugging me since the start of the year, and I had to write it out. It's 2.30am in the morning here in Singapore and my mind is groggy. Hope you like this story!**

* * *

Hermione paced the front doors of 12 Grimmauld Place, one hand on her back and the other lightly holding her bulging stomach. 6 hours had passed. Along with the female hormones and the stress, her emotions were like a roller coaster ride. Her husband and her friends were out there in a war, and there was nothing she could do because she was pregnant.

It was not that she hated the child in her stomach, but she resented it because it stopped her from going out there and doing what she felt was right – fighting the war and helping Harry defeat Voldemort. Hell, she was due in a month, the Order obviously refused to let her go out there and fight. What pissed her off even more was that _he_ cast an enchantment on her to prevent her from leaving the safe house. What a bloody fat arse. Though she herself was partly to blame. However it was not her fault that she was overcome by her emotions when they returned from a 10-day long mission all injured and torn – she had missed him so much they completely forgot about contraceptive charms. Months later she discovered she was pregnant, and now she was stuck in the Noble House of Black alone, waiting for her loved ones to come back unharmed.

She refused to think that she would lose anyone.

She refused to think that Harry would lose the war.

She refused to think that she would lose her husband.

She stopped and released a shuddering breath, running her hands through her curly mess of hair. It was no use, pacing the front doors waiting for them to return was not helping. The floor creaked behind her, and her head snapped up to find beady eyes glaring at her warily.

"Harry Potter gave orders to make sure the Mudblood is fed. Kreacher made pie."

Hermione sighed, looking down at her stomach. Perhaps a pie could help calm a bit of her nerves. Despite him calling her a mudblood, she still chose to be polite to Kreacher. "Thank you, Kreacher."

She carefully lowered herself onto the chair and ate the pie with small bites. She couldn't taste anything; she was just eating for the sake of having something to do. She hoped that the war would end already. The emotions going through her were too much, and she was sure she was stressing the baby as well as she could feel it moving and kicking her sides.

She sighed for the millionth time of the day and let the fork drop onto the table with a clang and held her hand in her hands. The next thing she knew, she was bawling her eyes out from the stress and emotions.

When she had finally gotten a grip on herself and quieted down, another hour or so had passed, and she needed to pee.

As she was washing her hands, footsteps were heard echoing down the hallway, and her heart skipped three beats.

_They were back._

Rushing out of the toilet, her eyes first landed on Harry, battered and torn, covered with lots of blood. His eyes had an odd glaze of joy mixed with grief in them.

"Harry…." She whispered, feeling out of breath.

Her gaze flickered to the red headed man beside Harry, then to the flock of red headed group entering the house. The whole Weasley family had returned.

She gulped as Harry and Ron moved to her side, but she refused to acknowledge them, eyes fixed on the door.

"Hermione…" she felt Harry whisper.

"No." She heard herself say.

She watched as Kingsley, Remus and Tonks enter, and then finally…. She lifted her head in anticipation, but the thing she dreaded most happened. Tonks closed the door behind her, giving her a sorrowful shake of the head.

Hermione felt as if the World crumbled around her. She felt her breath get taken away as she let a lone tear slip down her eye.

Why, why was it that everyone returned safely except him?

"Harry." She shuddered, feeling the World spin around her as she tried to catch her breath. "Harry, you promised."

"Hermione, I'm sorry." She heard Harry say. "Draco's missing."

And the World turned black.

* * *

She saw him in her dream. They were arguing, as always. But this time, it was when he had first joined the Order after approaching Dumbledore about his mission as a Deatheater. She called him a coward for not being able to stand up for himself and taking the mark. He had sneered at her and said "If I am a coward, Granger, I wouldn't be arguing with you right now. If I am a coward, I wouldn't be standing here, under the protection of the Order, fighting on your side, on _our_ side." That was the day she wanted to believe that he had changed for the better.

She dreamt of them spending time together doing research. She dreamt of her discussions with him, remembering how it felt to be talking to someone who actually _understood_ her. She dreamt of their first kiss under the mistletoe, and the others that followed; she dreamt of him confessing his love for her before going on his first mission with Harry and Ron; she dreamt of making love to him after they returned; she dreamt of making love to him every night; and she dreamt of all the times they spent together.

Now he was gone. _Missing_.

Probably dead, body lost somewhere in the debris.

He had promised to return, promised to come back and be there for her when she went into labor; be there in their child's future; be there for _her_.

He had broken all those promises.

She felt someone take her hand, and she turned to see Harry. His green eyes bore into her hazel ones, exposing his emotions to her.

"Hermione… I'm sorry."

She tore her gaze away.

"He… Voldemort distracted me. I didn't know what happened until I was looking for him after everything was over. Ron told me that Draco and he were fighting three deatheaters, and Draco was blasted away by one while Ron managed to take down two of them. When he looked, Draco was apparated away by his Father."

Hermione's eyes snapped back to Harry's, wide and fearful.

She could see tears forming in his eyes. "We don't know where they went. He… he never returned, but…" Harry stopped and wiped his tears away, unable to continue.

"But what, Harry?" Hermione asked.

"Lucius did. Lucius returned. His body was in there, lying face down. He looked quite beaten up, Hermione. I'm glad he was killed."

Hermione felt her heart tighten. If Lucius had returned… it meant that he was finished with Draco. And Draco was at wherever Lucius had taken him. At a place nobody knew. Another wave of blackness hit her, and Hermione fainted again.

* * *

She woke up a few hours later. This time, Ginny was beside her.

"Hermione, how're you feeling?"

_What a stupid question to ask._ Hermione didn't answer, just looked away, and all thoughts were immediately replaced by images of Draco and his beautiful steel gray eyes.

She heard Ginny sigh beside her. "I'm sorry, Hermione. Come on, let's sit you up, you have to eat."

Hermione shook her head, trying to plunge herself deeper into memories of Draco.

"Eat for the baby."

And those four words hit her like a wave of cold water. _The baby_.

"_Hermione, love, if I'm gone, please take care of yourself. Take care of the baby."_

"_No, Draco, you promised you would return. You promised you will come back, I don't want to think about it!"_

"_Hermione, listen to me." He gripped both sides of her head, forcing her to calm down and look at him. "No one knows what's going to happen in a war. There are deatheaters out there; my __**father**__ is out there. I promise I will try everything I can to return, but I cannot promise for sure that I will and I can return to you."_

_Hermione cried. She couldn't stop the tears from flowing down her face as she looked at her lover. "No, you will return to me, Harry will bring you back. He promised he would make sure you came back. He will bring you back."_

"_Hermione…"_

"_NO!" She screamed, pushing him away from her. "Don't say this, Draco! Why are you talking as if you will die out there? Stop being so pessimistic, we've been through this! You will go and fight while I am away from the war here, and then you will come back and we will live our happily ever after!"_

"_Life is not a fairytale, Hermione."_

"_Not all, Draco. But mine will be. You will come back safe and alive. Promise me you will return."_

_He kissed her then. "Hermione, I love you." He pretended she didn't ask him to promise, and kneeled down to give her stomach a kiss. "And I love you too. Daddy loves you, you must grow up healthy and happy." He stood up, catching her lips again._

_That was the kiss she hated most, because it felt like goodbye._

"_Hermione," he leaned his forehead against hers. "Take care of yourself and the baby. Remember, I love you both. I will try my best to return."_

Ginny was helping her up, and Hermione was too shaken to protest. That had been her last kiss with Draco. She had watched him leave with everyone to get ready for war, and she had been so angry with him that she had not even returned his "I love you"s.

And now, he was gone.

_What had she done?_

Ginny was spoon-feeding her. It was an insult to her dignity, but she couldn't care less. She had lost the love of her life; she had lost her soul. Right now, she was just a body for the baby to grow. She would eat for the baby. She would worry about other things later.

Her days fell into a routine. She slept, and ate, and the cycle repeats. There were occasional trips to the bathroom, but she never bothered to wash herself.

The others were worried for her. Even though she was eating, she was not eating as much as a pregnant woman should. The baby was obviously absorbing all the food, as Hermione was visibly thinner and paler. There were dark circles around her eyes, and she looked like she had not slept at all. Kingsley had sent out a search party for Draco, but four days had passed and there were no news.

"She will come around," Remus said, patting Hermione's two best friends on the back. "Give her a few more days."

She had no idea how many days had passed. She had just dreamt of Draco telling her to pull herself together. She could feel herself getting weaker everyday – her trips to the bathrooms were more tiring, and she was starting to have trouble swallowing whatever Ginny was feeding her. She lay there in her bed feeling as if all her energy had been sucked out of her.

In reality, a total of 6 days had passed. Hermione was wavering between consciousness and unconsciousness, and she knew deep within her that she had to call for help. It might harm the baby. As she tried to push herself up, a pain shot through her brain and she blacked out.

She was brought back to consciousness by a loud bang. Shouts were echoing around the house, and people were running around. For a moment, fear gripped her as she wondered if they were attacked, but she brushed it away. She could hear footsteps pounding up the staircase.

She jumped as the door to her room was thrown open with a loud bang.

Silence.

She lifted her head up to see whom it was, only to find her view obstructed by her belly. She grunted and tried to maneuver herself, but a voice stopped her dead in her actions.

"_Hermione."_

Just one word, and she felt her heart leap to her throat. Feeling tears welling up in her eyes, she prayed to every god and deity that she was not delusional.

Then _he _moved into her line of vision.

She felt her breath get taken away.

"Draco…." She whimpered. Even though his clothes were torn and half of him was covered in blood, he still looked extraordinarily handsome. To her. "Draco…"

_He was back._

_He had kept his promise._

_He was safe and he was back._

He collapsed onto his knees by her bedside. "Hermione…" His hand reached out to touch her, but he was pulled away roughly and thrown against the wall and held at wand point by 4 people, namely Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Remus.

"What did you tell me in the forest of Dean about Hermione?" Harry asked.

Draco let out a breath and let his eyes meet Hermione's worried and confused ones. "Hermione has changed me for the better, she makes me feel complete, and she's the only person I can see myself with in the future. She's pregnant with my child now, and I know I should wait until the war is over, but I want to marry her now, Potter, and I want your approval."

Harry released a shudder and stared at Draco with wide eyes, slowly lowering his wand. "How?" He asked, summarizing everyone's questions with one simple word.

Draco shook his head, letting a small smile grace his lips. "Hermione."

Harry pursed his lips and gave Draco a curt nod, and proceeded to usher everyone out of the room.

Meanwhile, Hermione was silently crying to herself. Her Draco was back; her husband was back, and she felt whole again. His return brought back her life, her soul, _everything._ She needed him.

He went back to his kneeling position by her bedside, hand lightly caressing her head, eyes showing all of the love he felt for her.

"Love, you look so frail…"

"It's good to have you back, Draco. I missed you. I love you."

Draco smiled. "I missed you too, and I love you too, more than anything else in the World."

He gave her a light peck on the lips, but it wasn't enough to Hermione.

Using whatever energy she had left, she pulled Draco back down and kissed him like she had never before.

The kiss was full of heated passion, but Hermione started to feel dizzy and responded less to his lips on hers. The next thing she knew, she had completely blacked out.

She woke up to a healer attending to her. She had asked for Draco, but Harry said that he was getting his fair share of healing in his room. She wanted to go find him, but she was too weak to get up and in too much pain. It was then that she noticed that the bulge of her stomach was gone. Harry handed her a baby boy, and she stared at him in shock and wonder.

"Your constant blacking out could have harmed the baby, so the healer got the baby out three weeks early. He's a healthy one, I assure you, though I'm not very happy with the fact that he's only got your nose. He looks like the exact replica of the git over there in the next room."

Hermione laughed, cradling the little baby boy close to her chest. Her baby, her _son_. Instantly, she felt another wave of tears hit her and she laughed again. "Draco's really back?"

Harry nodded and gave her a kiss on the forehead. "He told us about what happened after his Father took him away. The gist of it was that he sent the killing curse at his Father while the man was apparating away, therefore we found him dead at the battlefield. Why Lucius decided to come back to the warzone was beyond me, but at least he died. That's all I care about." He smiled at Hermione. "I'll leave the rest of the story for him to tell you. Have a good rest, Hermione." With that, Harry left the room.

It took another 3 days for Draco to be completely healed. They were sitting with each other with their baby boy between them in Hermione's bed, contented just to be with each other. Hermione didn't know how to ask, and he didn't know where to start. In the end, Hermione chuckled. "Start from when he apparated you away. Please, Draco."

Draco laughed. "You always seem to read my mind, don't you? Well. Lucius apparated me to the manor dungeons." Hermione held back a gasp. "He brought me there and we dueled, and he started going on about how I was a blood traitor and I sullied the Malfoy name by getting myself involved with the Order. Him being more skilled meant that he beat me half to death and broke my wand, but then he said something. When you became pregnant and when I married you, it appeared on the Malfoy family tree, and he said that you were probably already dead, as no one was in here protecting you. He was so sure I was going to die in the dungeons because he apparated away, but I was so mad and scared that he harmed you I think I threw a non-verbal killing curse at him. I passed out, and when I came to I was lying in a pool of my own blood, so I went to the manor's stores and healed myself the best I could, but I had to check if you were safe. The house elves wouldn't help me as I was a blood traitor and was no longer their master. My wand was broken so nobody could trace me. I stumbled all the way from the manor back here, and you were the only thing in my mind during those six days. I had broken bones and was malnourished and dehydrated, but I _had_ to see you. I'm just glad that you are safe. And Scorpy here."

"But Draco. You could have died! That evil, vile man! And you threw a non-verbal killing curse at him! And you're not really going to name our son Scorpius Malfoy will you?"

Draco smirked. "I would die if I found out you were dead, but I wouldn't let anything happen to myself without seeing you. Besides, I promised that I would try my best to come back to you, right? I almost died, woman. Give the man some credit and let me name the boy however I want."

Hermione laughed. "But Scorpius is hardly an attractive name, is it?"

Draco snorted. "Any children of ours will be attractive by default."

Hermione rolled her eyes, choosing not to deflate his ego. He had kept his promise to her, and she was beyond happy to know that he was alive. Everyone that mattered to her was safe and sound. And even though he had almost died in the war, she chose to think positively and ignore the constant 'what-if's in her mind. Her time with Draco had taught her to use her heart more, and she was less of the analytical and uptight girl she used to be.

As long as he was here with her, everything was going to be okay. They have a family, and she was sure they were going to expand it. They would buy an apartment, raise their kids, and send them to Hogwarts.

"Happily ever after, Draco." She whispered, giving him a peck on the lips.

"What, love?" he asked, not quite catching what she said.

"I said, we finally have our happily ever after."

* * *

**A/N: There! I hope you enjoyed this story. If you liked it, please check out my other story, It All Comes Down To You, currently WIP! I will update asap. Thank you for reading, please favourite and review!**


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